Ring binder



J. SCHADE I Feb. 10, 1194s.

RING BINDER Original Filed Dec. 20, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INV ENTOR Jhw Jar/1oz ATTORNEYS Feb. 10, *948. .1. SCHADE 2,435,848

RING BINDER Original Filed Dec. '20, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR dbl/n Jew/w:

BY 3% yel ATTORNEYS Patented Feb. 10, 1948 RING BINDER John Schade, Holyoke, Mass, assignor to National Blank Book Company, Holyoke, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Original application December 20, 1943, Serial No.

514,920. Divided and this application April 8, 1944, Serial No. 530,135

1 Claim. 1 This invention relates to improvements in the structure of ring binders. The present application is a division of application Serial Number 514,920, filed December 20, 1943, Patent No. 2,368,-

tomatic machinery. But they can be done by hand from the raw material or wire to make the finished product. So the method steps will be described without the complicated disclosure of 730, dated February 6, 1945. Such parent appli- 5. automatic machinery. cation is confined to the method of making the To begin, two parallel wires I and 2, which ma structure claimed in this application. be of indefinite length, are positioned to receive As the purpose of the structure in one imlaid on cross wires 3. These cross wires are laid portant aspect is for facilitating the operation of parallel Wires and 2 a HS wn a e Spa d the method, it is helpful to have the method in one from the other at any desired spacing, The mind when considering the structure. So the cross wires may be supplied from an indefinite method is fully described herein. However, the length, laid on, and then cut for all the ends on improvement in structure has other aspects of the same side to line up evenly in a straight line, utility. When, for example, the structure shifts or as indicated at a and b they may be laid on either during original assembly, in taking apart l5 and successive ends cut on the same side slightly and reassembling for repair or parts replacement staggered, although all the cross wires 3 are of the purposes or in use, the combination has particular "same length. The purpose of the staggered ends utility in permitting such shift while maintaining will be referred to later on. the functional relationship of the parts without When the cross wires 3 are laid on the lon their binding to cause trouble. wires 1 and 2,their contacting points are all weld- A significant element in the combination in ed together as indicated at 4. A preferred way to this respect is the nature of the joint for pivoting do this is progressively in pairs and by welding all the lower ends of the prongs considered with contacting points of two cross wires to the long relation to the other elements. wires l at the same time by a multiple welding This will be made clear as the description is machine. Thus if the long wires are moved given of all the particulars. ahead intermittently the length of two spacing In the drawings: distances of the short cross wires, they can be Fig. 1 shows the plan of assembling straight rapidly assembled in pairs, their ends cut oii, pieces of wire and welding their intersections; successive pairs of short wires welded in the as- Fig. 2 shows some of the assembled wire masembly with the long wires, and the welded asterial with indications of a first shaping step; sembly will then arrive in pairs of short wires at Fig. 3 is like Fig. 2 with a second shaping step convenient stations for subsequent work steps. indicated; Of course the arrangement of assembling in pairs Fig. 3A is an end view of Fig. 3; is by way of example. One, two, or more short Fi 4 is like Fig. 3 with a third shaping step Wires may be assembled simultaneously, I merely indicated; prefer two at a time; the example given. In this Fig. 5 is like Fig. 4 with a fourth shaping step way a ladder-like assembly of long wires and indicated; short wires may be formed progressively and Fig. 5A is an end view of Fig. 5; indefinitely continued as long as desired. This Fig. 6 is a view like Fig. 5 showing a cutting 0 is all indicated in Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive by way and wire end shaping step; of example.

Fig. 6A is a side view of an end portion of Fig. 6; After a pair of cross wires 3 are welded and Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the shaped wire then moved with the long wires l and 2, to the parts ready to be assembled into the spring plate; next work station, their central portions be- Fig. 8 is a fragmentary side view showing the tween wires I and 2 are flattened by swaging as finger piece positions at the start and end operashown at 5 in Fig. 2. A flattened portion is preftions in being bent to its final position; erably given the form shown best in Figs. 3 and Fig. 9 is a plan view of the assembled ring 3A, binder including the spring plate; After these flattened portions 5 are made, the Fig. 10 is an end view showing the rings closed; wires move forward to the next station and the and portions of cross wires 3 extending beyond or in Fig. 11 is a similar end view showing the rings overhanging relation to wires l and 2 are bent in open position. or curved into substantially semi-circular form, Of course the work steps indicated in the drawsee portions 6 in Figs. 3 and 3A. The overhang ings will be done in commercial practice by auon one side of each cross wire 3 is bent oppositely to the overhang on the other side and together they form the complementary sides of one binder ring. If the cross wires are of a material or a size which does not bend easily at one operation, then they can be partiall bent in one operation at one work station and again bent further at another station until bent the wanted amount.

After the cross wires 3 are bent to ring form, the upper ends of each wire are cut into complementary fitting forms. A preferred arrangement for such ends to be cut is shown in Fig, 4 in the two left hand rings. It is advisable to make these out forms starting from underneath and cutting outwardly. This will avoid even the smallest size burr being left on the lower edge. Thus when the paper sheets are turned on the rings in the finished structure they will have smooth passage in contact with the under side of the rings.

Up to this point the work is carried on while the stiff ladder-like form of wire material, seen in Figs. 1 to 4, is integral and in most convenient form for mass production steps. Now that the rings are formed and their outer ends shaped for matching fit when closed, it is desired to form toggle mechanism joints in the structure as will be explained. This is a particularly important feature of my invention.

The toggle joints are formed while the ladderlike form of wire is resting at the appropriate work station. As indicted in Fig. 5, the two left hand rings are at such a station. The work at this station is conveniently done by operations on two of the cross wire flattened portions simultaneously. The work consists in making the cut 1, see Fig. 5A, across the flattened portion 5, at the same time making the little transverse cut 8, from the edge inwardly of one of the severed ends, and reversely bending the tongues 9 and In as shown best in Fig. 5A. This bending is preferably done by the appropriate shape of a two part die cutting tool. In the product the edge on one side of cut I is like a knife edge, the portion 5 being flattened and thin as it is, for pivotal engagement along the line made by the root portions of the oppositely bent tongues 9 and Ill. The arrangement makes a most inexpensive type of pivotal engaging parts for the ends of the ring halves and a most efficient joint between these parts.

After these pivotally engageable ends are made out of portions 5 for the rings, the successive steps taken to bring the ladder-like material. to the work stations will move the desired length of long wires with the severed and formed cross wires past the last forming work station. Then a desired length of the parallel long wires with the desired number of matching half rings on them may be cut off. The cut off parts are assembled with an arched spring plate as will be described.

In the final assembly it is sometimes desirable to have a ring opening device at one end, as I have indicated in Figs. 10 and 11. It consists of two bent up ends H and I2 of the long wires I and 2. These are crossed as shown. By pressing these as finger pieces in the direction of the arrows, the rings are easily opened.

Such an opening device is preferably provided for in my method steps as follows: In arranging the method steps to be carried out at successive stations, one of the first steps is to feed the cross wires on the long wires. The latter are moved forward step by step, the cross wires are fed on. When enough wires have been fed on to provide for one binder mechanism of desired length and number of rings, the feed of the cross wires may be interrupted to permit the advance of the needed lengths of the long wires, free of cross pieces, for forming the finger pieces for the ring opening device. The spacing as shown is by way of example and of course no Welding or forming operations are performed along the bare lengths of the long wires from which the finger pieces are to be formed. At the cutting off station I3, Fig. 6, the cutting is delayed until the bare portions of the long wires which are to form the finger pieces have passed the cutter as shown in the latter figure. Alternatively, of course the cutting could be timed so as to be made in the normal position behind the last ring of the preceding ring assembly so that the bare portions of the long wires project from the forward end of the assembly still being worked on. In the manner of cutting illustrated, the bare portions are bent up at the cut off station in the positions best shown in Fig. 6A. Their hooked ends are here positioned so as not to engage. When the assembly with the spring plate I 4 is made as indicated in Fig. 8 the finger piece I2 is bent toward the other one H so the hooked ends will engage as desired. Such an arrangement in the method makes it easier to assemble the two halves of the ring frame in the spring plate when the opening device is to be made part of the structure.

The assembly of parts with spring plate 14 is easily made. The long wires are bedded in the hook-shaped sides of the spring plate I4, with the ring halves threaded through the adjacent holes. The lower ends of the ring halves are put into pivotal engagement, each as in Fig. 11. Then the finger piece 12 is bent into final position as stated.

Considering the ring arrangement in the finished assembly Fig. 9, it will be noted that the upper ends of the ring halves 6 do not come together for their ends to meet in the same longitudinal and vertical plane. They have a staggered arrangement with respect to the meeting points, indicated at c and (1. As shown, alternate rings meet in the same vertical plane and there are two planes of meetings ends. This is an advantage in the easier threading on the rings of the hole punched loose leaf sheets, particularly when the rings are closely spaced. The sheet first threads every other ring in every other hole, and this holds it in positionto engage the remaining rings. When all the rings need to engage all the holes at one time, the proper alignment is sometimes difficult to get, particularly when there are many rings and many holes to be engaged. v, v

Such a refinement of ring arrangement is most easily incorporated in the structure by the nature of my method steps. It is only necessary to feed the cross wires 3 in the staggered arrangement on the long wires, according to the plan I pointed out before with respect to ends a and b in Fig. 1. This is done without the slightest difficulty, and the result is'that the structure can be made better without an extra expense. 7

A feature of they invention is that the parts will assemble and fit together in the spring plate without the need for any precision fitting. The matched ends of the ring prongs on the top have a self-centering tendency. The matched ends of the toggle levers at their pivotally engaged parts are shiftable to a sufficient extent to need no precision fitting. Thus when the two halves of the frame are out off from the longer frame they will assemble easily in the spring plate. When the halves are put anywhere near together as they are wanted in the spring plate, each half is shiftable relatively to the other and easily as a whole. Thus the ring prongs and the toe-- gle levers can be brought into matching position without any need for any individual precision fitting anywhere in the structure. There is considerable leeway available. And such leeway is important for economy and convenience in fast assembly work of such wire and sheet metal structure. Furthermore, such leeway makes a better working final product because if any part is sprung out of line a bit still the assembly is loose enough to continue all the expected operations without any cramping action of the operating parts.

It will now be clear how the structure is particularly useful in following the desired method steps. And when the structure of the finished article goes into use it will be clear that the pivot joints of all the prongs may shift without binding and how they will maintain good pivotal connection while permitting rapid assembly and disassembly.

From the detailed description of the method steps the structural characteristics of the product making the method feasible and practical will be appreciated. The combination of elements shown in the drawings, particularly the many rings and their close spacing, represents a structural product, new in the loose leaf binder art. It is, as illustrated, a binder toggle wire frame mechanism with many rings. In view of thelow cost possible with my new method the new toggle mechanism has been made with rings closely spaced as in the drawings with the rings actually apart along the length of the two long side wires. Thus, for example, a binder having sheets with a binding edge of 11" may be provided with 14 rings. The spacing might be less or slightly more than one inch and come within the scope of this invention as pointed out in the claim. It will be seen from the nature of the structure, that with the toggle knee joints of the inner mating wire prong ends and the spring plate assembled as described without a precision fitting, a binder of the type here considered needs to be provided with many closely spaced rings for the full advantage of good toggle action. A small size binder with my new wire toggle mechanism, by way of further example, could be represented by a unit with an overall binding margin of 3 /2 for the loose leaf sheets. Allowing a margin at each end the unit would be thus provided with 5 rings.

Prior binders of the many closely spaced ring type, relating to the present disclosure and available in the trade, are, insofar as I am aware, usu- 6 ally large toggle plate mechanisms, expensive, heavy in construction, and comparatively unwieldy because of their weight. The present conception is the first to my knowledge employing without more, wire frame side members, multiple crosswise interfitting wire prongs, and a simple form of spring plate.

Having disclosed my invention, I claim:

A ring binder device comprising a toggle spring plate and a wire frame toggle mechanism, said mechanism being formed of two long wires, one held at each side edge of the plate, many more than two short wires carried crosswise of the long ones and arranged in four or more pairs of complementary ring halves to form many rings, the corresponding series of ring halves being rigidly fastened at crossing spots to their adjacent long wire and with the many rings at closely spaced intervals as in multi-ring binders in contrast to three ring binders, each pair of ring halves having portions meeting end to end between the long wires to form a series of many closely spaced identical toggle knee joints of small size, each such joint being in the form of one wire end flattened to a knife edge Divot and one wire end flattened to tongue shape and split, for a portion to lie below and a portion to lie above the cooperating wire end of the knife edge pivot, the metal bearing points of each knee joint being no more than that furnished by flattened contiguous wire ends so that the many closely spaced knee joint pivoting contacts are small ones of the stated kind, suspended between the long wires without other support than the cross wires, such cross wires being supported by said long wires, in turn supported by the spring plate, all adapted for an efllcient, cheap, light weight binder of many closely spaced rings.

JOHN SCI-IADE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 

